Archive of Our Own ^beta

Approval

Prompto hadn’t answered his texts for four hours.

That told Ignis that something was fundamentally wrong. During daylight hours, Prompto usually answered texts within five minutes, ten minutes, an hour if he was tied up with something or if his phone was dead. Four hours during the day meant something drastic had happened. Supposedly Prompto’s parents were home to visit, and as rarely as they visited he tried to spend time with them when they were in town, but even that usually wouldn’t delay him by much. Either Prompto had fallen asleep after underestimating how tired he was, or he had been kidnapped or possibly killed.

Perhaps Ignis was being a bit dramatic, but it was highly unusual. 

Ignis had asked Noctis and Gladio to try to text him as well, in case it was a glitch with the SMS system or his phone, but neither of them got responses either. Noctis actually tugged Ignis’ sleeve across his homework after fifteen minutes with no response, wide-eyed.

“He’s not responding. Something happened.” He frowned at his phone, then Ignis. “Can you check on him?”

When it was a direct order from his Prince, who was he to question it?

Ignis drove to the suburbs as fast as the traffic allowed, and perhaps a little faster than legal. He arrived at Prompto’s house, a familiar little townhouse in the middle of a long row of identical houses, and found the driveway empty. Ignis frowned - Prompto’s parents weren’t home, then? - but got out and knocked on the door.

There was silence within. 

Ignis knocked again. “Prompto? Darling?”

Ignis heard movement within, and moments later, the door opened. Prompto, red-faced, eyes swollen, hair messed up, and slouching, opened the door. He sniffled a little as he looked up at Ignis. “H-hey. Um. Sorry.”

“Whatever for, dear heart?” Ignis furrowed his brow. “May I come in, or is now a bad time?”

Prompto sucked his lower lip in, then jerked his head nervously. “It’s a bad time. But. Um. Come in.” He moved aside and let Ignis pass, then led him to the kitchen. 

Ignis took in a few details, familiar and unfamiliar. The two chairs that Prompto’s parents occupied when they were home had been moved, and there were a few extra cups in the sink. However, there were papers strewn haphazardly on the floor, and Prompto stumbled past them unsteadily to fill a cup from a filtered pitcher in the refrigerator. Ignis, however, crouched down to examine the papers - the Crownsguard training application, partially completed. Prompto, meanwhile, turned back to Ignis as he stood, reordering the pages. “I can make you some coffee, if you like…” 

“Don’t trouble yourself, dearest.” Ignis took his hand and tugged him around. “Come, will you tell me what happened?”

Prompto bit his lip, hands trembling as he held out the glass in his hand. Ignis quickly took the glass and set it on the table, then set all the papers on the table and took both of his hands to lead him to the sitting room. He put Prompto back on the sofa where he had obviously been before Ignis had come to see him, judging by the pile of tissues on the coffee table and floor and his phone, blinking ineffectually under one of the tissues. Ignis eased him down to sit on the sofa, then grabbed the throw blanket and tucked it around his shoulders.

“You can tell me anything, love.” Ignis took both of his hands and squeezed them. “I implore you.”

Prompto bit his lip, then hung his head. “My… my folks were home? We were talking. About college. They. Um.” He sniffled hard. “They said my college fund… apparently, there isn’t one?" Ignis' eyebrows involuntarily raised, as Prompto rubbed at his nose. "Yeah. I figured, you know? They said I’m on my own for, like, the loans? And I told ‘em, that’s cool, I’m joining the Crownsguard, and-” Prompto choked back a sob, then put his face in his hands. “Oh, Gods, they said they’d kick me out of the house.”

Ignis inhaled sharply. “Darling-”

“They said they didn’t waste eighteen years on me to see me throw my life away in the war!” Prompto shook his head. “They apologized that they couldn’t save money for college but they told me that they’d never let me join and I told ‘em, I’m eighteen, and I want to join Prince Noctis’ retinue-” He hitched back another burst of tears. “They told me that they were sick of hearing me lie and say I was friends with him. How could the Prince be friends with someone like me-”

In that instant, Ignis knew what he had to do. Those people had been home for less than a day and in that blink of an eye, destroyed Prompto's confidence, and now Ignis had to build him back up. He dammed back his anger as much as he could - how dare they cloud his sunshine? - and focused on Prompto.

Ignis took Prompto’s hands and pulled them from his face, tangling their fingers. Tears were streaming down Prompto’s face anew, and Ignis dried them with his sleeve. “Precious dear, it’s going to be alright.” He drew the blankets tight around Prompto’s shoulders. “I’m going to make you a mug of cocoa. Would you like some cocoa, dear heart?”

Prompto nodded, and Ignis dried his eyes again, then hurried to the kitchen to put the kettle on. He’d given Prompto a small container of assorted cocoa powders for a holiday gift the previous Crystalmas, and he put a few heaping spoonfuls of the dark chocolate powder into a mug, then hurried back to Prompto’s side as the kettle came to temperature. 

“Allow me to correct a few things they said.” Ignis sat with him again, taking his hands as Prompto continued to sniffle and shiver. “Eighteen years? They raised you for eighteen years, they said? Like hell. Darling, they’re never here. They don’t know you, not like I do. Not like Noctis does. Not like Gladiolus does. I daresay His Majesty knows you better than they do.” 

Prompto sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. “King Reg-”

“King Regis takes every one of Noctis’ calls, and I never hear Noctis happier than when he speaks of you to him. Not,” Ignis quickly added, “that I eavesdrop. Only enough to hear the smile in his voice. His Majesty has asked after you after meetings, as well." Prompto's eyes widened with surprise, his shoulders drpping, and Ignis shook his head. "You never mention them calling you, and I’ve seen you struggle to reach them when you need them.” He tightened his hold on Prompto’s hands, heart afire when he thought of Prompto trying to make those calls, watching his face fall as he left a voicemail, never, never, never getting a call back. “Have they met your emotional needs? Your physiological needs? Such as, grocery money? The mortgage funds? Advice? When is the last time they called you for your birthday, on your birthday?”

“Iggy…” Prompto’s brow knit. “They… they do try, I know they have to work, and they like their jobs, and living in the city is expensive-”

“I understand that they need to make money to live off of, and the rising cost of living in Insomnia does concern me, but surely even then, there must be a few hours a day wherein they're not working. They don’t make the time, love.” Ignis sighed. “How can they make any claim on your life, your personhood, anything, when they don’t make any effort to know you beyond ‘the boy living in their home?’ I may have only known you a few years, but I know you better than they do. I know your habits like the back of my own hand. I know your daily routine, I know your favorite foods, I know your tells, like when you’re in a bad mood or thinking about something or when your stomach is acting up-” He 

Prompto bit his lip, but Ignis touched his chin to lift his face. “I can’t say you should dislike them. I don’t know them. I don’t think you do, either. As for their statements that they’ll remove you from their home if you choose to join the Crownsguard in order to afford college - and, darling, if you are only joining the Guard for the sake of the student funding, I have a laundry list of scholarships we can apply to in order to circumvent you having to pay a thin crown towards your education if you don’t want to-”

“I want to join and be part of Noctis’ retinue.” Prompto clenched his jaw at that. “He’s my best friend, and anything I can do to help him, I will.”

Ignis nodded, pride burning bright in his chest like a flame in the dark. “I had thought you would say as much. Very well.” Ignis rose to the whistling kettle and poured hot water onto the cocoa, added a little splash of cream, then returned to Prompto with the cocoa and the Crownsguard application. “If you wish to join the Crownsguard, then you will. Nobody can stop you. If they do so insist that you leave their house if you join, then my darling, there is a place for you in my home, as much as you already reside in my heart.”

Prompto sniffled, then managed a wobbly smile. “You don’t mind if I join? Even if it means we’ll be working together when I’m out of training, if I make my way into Noct’s personal retinue?”

“Mind? Never.” Ignis chose not to admit aloud that he sincerely hoped Prompto would join the retinue, especially after seeing him at the shooting range after Noctis begged him into trying out “real guns” after Prompto beat his high score on House of the Necromancer for the fifteenth time. He also knew it went unsaid that he would ensure Prompto didn’t ‘throw his life away,’ as his parents had suggested. If it came down to it, he would put himself between Prompto and death as quickly as he would protect Noctis’ life. “I encourage you, not to sign up for the Crownsguard, but to do what you want to do.” He put the cocoa mug into Prompto’s hand and took hold of the other. “I want to see you at your happiest. Chase your dreams. I’ll be right behind you every step of the way.” 

Prompto, huddled up under the blanket with cocoa in hand, finally dried the last of his tears and put on a proud smile. “Thank you so much. For coming, for talking to me.” He shook his head, eyelashes fluttering as his face went pink. “For… for just being here for me.”

“Everyone deserves the chance to do what they love, and what others think - no matter who they are - should never matter.” Ignis caressed his face, thumb running over a patch of freckles, and Prompto beamed, his sunshine smile clearing the clouds from his expression. 

Prompto wasn't killed or kidnapped, no, but Ignis felt this was a near miss in seeing Prompto's confidence crushed. Dramatic, perhaps, but Ignis wouldn't let the reality match that perception. He would be there for Prompto next time to build him up, protect him, and nurture his gentle spirit. He would go to whatever lengths it took to do that, be it a speedy drive to be at his side, a cup of cocoa and a shoulder to cry on, or a safe place to land when the rug was tugged out from under him. Today, Prompto most needed someone to approve of him, and Ignis was already there.